


fretful fingertips

by injeoImis



Category: Batman (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics)
Genre: Bonding, i just want dami and tim to be civil, pianist!tim, violinist!damian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-26 16:29:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13861659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/injeoImis/pseuds/injeoImis
Summary: i am in need of music that would flow over my fretful fingertips, with melody, deep, clear and liquid-slow. || Apparently, the best time to bond with your older brother is through music in the middle of the night.





	fretful fingertips

**Author's Note:**

> title: i am in need of music by elizabeth bishop

Patrol free nights were as rare as a picture of Damian himself smiling so when the time had come, Damian made sure he preyed on the opportunity. Damian walked the manor as he usually did every Saturday night after patrol for a sense of clarity and to bring him back to reality. Often he’d walk in solitude but tonight he was accompanied by a Spotify playlist and his headphones. Damian wasn’t sure when these strolls became routine. He remembered walking around when he came back to life.

 

The familiarity of his new home was… comforting, as much as he did not want to admit it. The dark hallways with sparse moonlight from the cracked blinds in front of windows larger than him… Damian loved it. The architecture was something he enjoyed but perhaps would not take up because Damian always felt obliged to work at Wayne Enterprises, in case something happened to Father or Drake again. Grayson said he doesn’t have to worry about that, especially at thirteen. But those are the kinds of things his family should be thinking about in their line of work, for lack of a better description.

 

Damian hummed to himself as the song Wonderwall by Oasis began to play. After a week of the walks, Damian had come to memorise every room on the second floor of the manor, where his own room was. He made an unconscious right turn into the music room, stopping in front of a ¾ violin. Damian was wary of the instrument, although his fingers itched to pick up the bow and play a song from memory.  _ It wouldn’t hurt to… _ He supposed, pausing his music and quietly pulling a chair into the soft light from one of the windows near the violin.

 

With his busy life, the last time Damian had played any instruments was months before he first came to Gotham. His mother insisted that he was born to be a perfect child and nothing less. She had forced him to learn the piano, violin, viola, cello, and he took up singing lessons as well. The gloss of the violin’s wood almost (keyword: almost) made him think back to those days. Damian wouldn’t say he missed them but he’d be a liar if he said it didn’t hurt when he reminisced.

 

Bringing the violin to his chin, Damian was surprised to hear that it was perfectly in tune. He assumed that no one residing in the manor had time to pick up an insignificant instrument like this. Soon enough, Damian found himself lost in the music, playing a [song](https://open.spotify.com/track/1D5AWyG2oOk42eQFdLN1bK?si=tPjZX0spSlGx0GwMJkSc7A) from memory. There came a point where Damian could no longer remember all the extensive notes so he pulled out his phone to research the sheet music. In that short time between setting the violin back in its case and a momentary silence, Damian felt a presence not too far.

 

In the doorway stood none other than Tim. Damian frowned,  _ Of course _ . What was he here for? To tell Damian to knock it off and go to sleep? TT. Hypocrite. He probably wasn’t sleeping anyway. “Damian? You know it’s almost half past two in the morning… right?” The older teen commented, entering the room and taking a seat in front of the piano.

 

“Why should the time concern me, Drake?” Damian replied, scrolling on his phone to decrease his annoyance. “Not everyone likes to hear the violin while they’re sleeping. Or, at least… attempting to. I don’t necessarily sleep that much these days… Never really have anyway. I’m lucky if I can sleep for ten minutes. Sometimes, when I sneeze my eyes close so that’s progress right?” If Tim were anyone else (anyone else, referring only to Grayson, Mizoguchi, or Jon) at that moment, Damian might have laughed at the response.

 

There was another momentary silence, but this time, a bit awkward. There was nothing Damian had to say to his older brother. Or at least anything in that specific moment that he wanted to say. Sure, there were some not so nice responses he could have thought of but they weren’t worth his breath. Besides, for Jon and Grayson’s sakes, Damian was trying to get onto most people’s good sides.

 

“So… you play the violin?” Tim asked absentmindedly, playing stray keys on the piano. Damian wasn’t sure if he should answer but did anyway. “As well as the piano, viola, and cello. I also sing… Not that it matters…” Damian picked up the violin again, this time sitting in the rest position. He turned to Tim as he began to pick up his pace with what Damian assumed was mediocre piano skills. “An old friend of mine sent me this song. I don’t suppose you know any Korean?” Tim asked, continuing to play the song. Damian was slightly offended. Of course, he knew Korean, as well as Arabic, Latin, Chinese, Italian, French, and many other languages. To think that Drake would underestimate his abilities… For shame.

 

The youngest Wayne watched as his third older brother let the [music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM7j_TipL6s) consume him. Damian knew the feeling well but seeing it happen to someone else was… encouraging, for lack of better words on his part. Despite his mother forcing him to learn many orchestra instruments, Damian liked to think it was the only escape when he was in the League. Perhaps the piano was also an escape for Drake, as Damian knew about his parents' habit of negligence.

 

When the song began to slow, signaling its end, Damian couldn’t help but want to hear more. “Teach me,” Damian started, setting the violin down in its case. Of course, Damian already knew how to play the piano. But, he wanted to play the way Tim did completely invested in the moment. Suffocating in the sounds from the piano keys as if they were his only life source. The intensity that radiated off of Tim when he played the piece was exhilarating. Although Damian would most likely never tell his older brother that (He didn’t deserve the satisfaction).

 

“T-teach you? At two forty-five in the morning?” Tim asked, incredulously. Damian rolled his eyes, “I already know how to play the piano, Drake. I meant… the way you do. How everything else around you dissipates and all that’s left is you and the piano. That’s what I want.”

 

Tim inhaled for a second, promptly exhaling and letting his shoulders drop. “How about you ask me that question again when it’s an appropriate time for someone to learn the piano.” “TT,” Damian started. He wanted to say something rude but refrained from doing so. “After lunch.” “Okay, gremlin. Now go get some sleep. Preferably enough for the both of us since I won’t be getting any.”

**Author's Note:**

> i realised this is kind of ooc for both tim and damian, but one of my headcanons is that they’d gradually be more civil with each other as time goes on... also this is kind of short so,,, maybe i'll write another chapter :)


End file.
